EAST WINDSOR — It has been more than two weeks since Superstorm Sandy hit our area, leaving a trail of destruction and devastation in her wake.

Although Mercer County residents are now feeling a newfound sense of normalcy after the unprecedented natural disaster, small business owners are just realizing their huge financial losses, which will likely take months or even a year, to recuperate.

“We estimate a loss of between $25,000 to $30,000 for all the days we were closed,” said Erica Taylor, a sales associate for East Windsor Floor Covering. The well-established small business, which has been a staple in the community for over 17 years, experienced a power outage which forced the owners to close for nearly a week. According to the sales staff, they still have not seen business rebound, thanks to a large number of local residents who are still without power.

“It is not like we are getting a lot of customers with flood damage and need to change their carpeting,” said Taylor. “Most of the people in this area lost power.”

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According to The United States Small Business Administration (SBA), almost 27,000 business disaster loan applications have been filed in the State of New Jersey, since Hurricane Sandy. In Mercer County, 144 business disaster loan applications are currently being reviewed by the SBA with more applications expected to be filed in the days to come.

“I estimate I lost about $5,000 to $6,000 dollars,” said Windsor Wine and Spirit owner Andy Patel. “It was such a bizarre situation and people are just starting to come back because they have been without light for so long.” Patel owns two liquor stores, both in the Windsors and both were closed for five days, waiting for the electricity to come back.

Patel acknowledged that through most crises, alcohol is usually one of the first provisions locals restock in their homes, but gas rationing and loss of work days makes enjoying liquor less than satisfying.

Although many strip malls that run up and down Route 130 remained without power after the storm, one business used ingenuity and determination to offer a basic need to township residents and to emergency rescue employees.

“We were one of the only places you could go to get pizza,” said Brian Lett, manager of Sal’s Pizza located in the Royal Plaza Mall in East Windsor. “My boss would go up to his cousin’s pizza store, would make the dough in the morning then drive it down here.”

Passersby and even FEMA employees who were station in the area, to help with the relief effort, were surprised to see working ovens and piping hot pizza. The owners of the family owned business used generators to run the ovens and fridges, and would stay open until the dough ran out.

“I’m not even sure if we turned a profit last week,” said Lett who was exhausted from writing orders by hand and was thrilled to have the computer systems back up. “Because of the cost to run the generators, and because we had to close early when the dough ran out, I don’t know how much money we really made, but people were happy to see us open and get a hot meal.”